Limited Edition
by gracedkelly
Summary: James Potter has three rules when it comes to his Quidditch team. 1. No dating fellow team members. 2. Be early for practice. 3. Quidditch comes first. By the end of sixth year, I had waltzed right over his rules, lost us the Quidditch Cup and gotten hexed as a result by our favourite Beater, and I was about to do it all again. Some witches never learn. Full summary inside
1. Home Again

_**Full summary:**_ James Potter has a couple of rules when it comes to his Quidditch team. Rule number one: No dating fellow team members. It distracts, it destroys, it's disrespectful to the team. He calls it his three D's, to our great amusement.

Rule number two: don't be on time for practice, be at least a few minutes early. Punctuality is every Quidditch player's greatest strength. Or so Potter has undoubtedly read somewhere.

And last but not least, rule number three: Quidditch comes first. If Cap tells you not to do something (like when he commands you in his deep manly voice to stop eating chocolate because it slows you down _and you have a problem, Larnes)_ , you better do it. No one knows how to make your life hell like James Fleamont Potter. Ask Lily Evans. She'll confirm.

By the end of sixth year, I hadn't only broken these three lousy rules of his, I'd waltzed right over them, spat on them and then lost us the Cup. And I was about to do it all over again.

Some witches never learn.

 ** _Disclaimer_ : I do not own Harry Potter and every OC of JK Rowling's is exactly that... an original character that I have humbly borrowed. I do not own anything of this work except the added plotlines, characters and the wording of this story. I won't make this disclaimer at the beginning of every chapter.**

* * *

 ** _WHO MISSED ME?_**

 _Probably no one. Stop embarrassing yourself, Kelly, jeez._

 _What's up, my darlings? I'm back with a brand new fic_ _idea_ _because let's face it... There can never be enough Sirius/OC in the world._

 _This is a first draft, and I'll be uploading a chapter every week. It's supposed to be a lighthearted read with lots of laughs, some drama and one hell of a romance story._

 _Hope you enjoy this first chapter and, as always, let me know what you think!_

 _Spread love like you would Nutella, my darlings._

 _Love,_

 _Kelly_

* * *

 **1\. Home Again**

"At least he didn't cut me from the team," I told Marlene McKinnon, my best friend extraordinaire as I stepped away from the board. James Potter, our beloved Quidditch Captain, had only just put up the parchment declaring his team for the year, and despite my lapses in judgement last year I still made it. I decided not to acknowledge that another name, the one I'd been looking for first, hadn't made the cut.

I ignored the stink eye one of my younger housemates gave me when he saw I was still on the team.

"It's not like he has any choice," Marlene shrugged as she grabbed my arm.

"I can't believe _she_ 's back. What is he thinking?" I heard the same boy—Rufus McCane?—say to his friend. "Is he trying to lose?"

Marlene steered me away from the nasty gossipers that were looking at me like I just spat in their soups. "You and Potter are the best Chasers this school has seen in years. He'd be mad to kick you off the team," she reassured me gently. "They don't know what happened last year, and therefore they don't get to judge. You tried to bring your a-game, you tried, and you failed. It happens."

I gave her a pointed look as we exited the common room and continued down to the Great Hall. I'd heard this speech of hers before. She'd been giving it to me for two months now, through owl, over the phone and even face-to-face those four times we managed to meet up over the summer holidays.

We started our descent to the Great Hall, which all of a sudden didn't seem that far from our common room. It'd been like this for two weeks. Students I'd been friendly with before looked at me nastily, shouted things down the hall and distances I'd loathed to travel before seemed like peanuts now. It'd been four months since we lost the game, and I'm just now starting to realise it might take me twice as long to win my peers' respect back.

Marlene was silent for a while, but spoke up again two flights of stairs down. "So what if you lost us the Cup last year. Big deal. You'll make up for it this year. You'll have to."

"No pressure, right?" I scoffed.

Marlene put her arm over my shoulder, proving yet again that she was at least two heads taller than me. "You know you'll always be my little, tiny, small and favourite witch in the world, right?"

Could she have put any more adjectives marking me as a hobbit in there?

I shrugged her arm off with a nasty look. "Who are you calling little, you giant?"

We stared at each other ominously, halting in the middle of the staircase, before we grinned at one another and continued our way down without another word on the matter.

James, unlike the other Captains, had made quick work of assembling his Quidditch team this year. We'd been struggling last year and only made a full team somewhere around mid-October. Just before our first match, which we'd nearly lost because we'd only had four days to train our new Beater. Anita's great, but she's not a miracle worker and neither is James. He had seen potential in her back then and he, as per usual, was right. Anita's skills may not rival Sirius', but she was at least twice the Beater her predecessor was. Simon's ability to hit a bludger wasn't worth a knut.

"Jules," Marlene The Giant said cheerfully, because honestly nothing could keep that woman down for long, "you got this. He'll forgive you."

We were just about to enter the Great Hall when someone bumped into me.

"Hey!" I shouted, only to swallow my words when I looked up at an angry Potter. Why am I this tiny? Damn Marlene.

James Potter, messy black hair and often described as a six foot two spectacled menace by one Lily Evans, narrowed his eyes at me and took a deep breath. For a minute I was pretty sure he was going to have a go at me, but Sirius Black, our other Beater, and Peter Pettigrew grabbed his arms and steered him away before the steam could leave my captain's ears.

"Sorry about that," a gentle, but slightly amused voice said from behind us. "He'll come around."

"Remus," I said and genuinely smiled. I'd always liked Remus Lupin. He was a little odd, but the good kind of odd. I hadn't forgotten how he'd helped me with Herbology in third year. Out of James' clique of elite friends, I'd always liked Remus best. "I haven't had the chance to talk to you yet. How was your summer?"

"It was good. Hi Marlene." His eyes, like always, were on my oblivious friend who was eyeing the tables with a ravenous hunger in her eyes. For a smart witch, she was pretty dumb sometimes.

"Oh," she said when I pinched her side. "Hello. How are you doing?" She turned to me before Remus could reply. Poor thing. "How about breakfast, Jules?"

"Yeah, yeah." I grinned, my eyes never leaving Remus. He really should stand up a little straighter if he wants to impress Marlene. Remus always looked like he wanted to crawl into himself and disappear. Even with the scar on the side of his face, I found him a handsome lad. Not as handsome as James or Sirius, but his mug wasn't bad to look at. "I just hope he forgives me soon. I didn't mean to miss that shot or, well, any of them." I had been off my game the whole time, missing one shot after another. I dropped the quaffle four times and seconds before Regulus Black caught the snitch, I'd missed my final shot. By falling off my broom. Like a lovesick idiot.

Remus touched the hand I'd balled into a fist briefly. Kind, intelligent and sweet to boot. Why couldn't Marlene fall for someone like Remus? Then maybe I could live vigorously through her, _and_ we'd eat a lot less chocolate ice cream as a way to cheer her up after another heartbreak. It's a win-win, really. "We know, and somewhere deep down James knows this too. Slytherin just had the better game plan last year. That's going to change though, he's been brooding over new plays all summer. He's become a little… obsessed, I'm afraid."

I grimaced and ignored the impatient tapping of Marlene's left foot. "When you say obsessed you mean…"

"He's been consumed by Quidditch since last June. He's been so preoccupied by the game that he's only written to Lily once this summer."

So… Time to plan my funeral then. I groaned. "He's going to be a monster during practices. Especially to me."

"We're working on him," Remus grinned. He flicked his hair in front of his face, hiding his scar effectively.

The feeling of nausea that hadn't left my stomach since the first day of school two weeks ago, grew ever so slightly. "Who's 'we'?" I asked, vaguely noting that my voice sounded like I was being strangled by an unseen force.

I didn't want Sirius Black working on anything when it came to me. The last time he worked on some kind of plan that involved me, my hair had been this hideous shade of green for the better part of two days. In celebration of Slytherin winning the Cup, or so he'd yelled from the boys' dormitory after hearing my horrified scream.

"Juliet Larnes," Marlene warned softly so only I could hear as she poked me in the side, "food is being eaten and it's not me who's doing the eating. Let's go." I grabbed her finger before she could bruise me any further. She'd somehow managed to kick me off a chair two days ago and my ass hadn't recovered yet.

"Peter and I," Remus admitted. "Sirius is more like Switzerland."

"Right," I drawled. "I'm sure he won't make it worse at all."

"Don't worry," Remus said reassuringly, which didn't reassure me at all. When boys are being unnecessarily sweet and considerate… _that's_ when you run.

"Moony!" the current subject of our conversation hollered from the Gryffindor table.

"Right. I've got to go. Nice chat," he said and winked at me in such an atypical Remus Lupin manner that I stared.

"Did Lupin just wink?"

"Of course you'd notice that and not that he's desperately trying to catch your attention."

"Remus Lupin isn't desperately trying to talk to me," Marlene said as we hurried past the boys before James could throw a rotten egg at my head. "He's just socially awkward and winking at you."

I gave her another one of my infamous pointed looks. I don't carry my heart on my sleeve, it's right there on my face.

Marlene saw and rolled her eyes. We took our seats, and she pointed at me. "Stop it."

I waggled my eyebrows. "You should go for it."

"The only thing I'm going to go for is bacon. Bloody hell." She closed her eyes and enjoyed breathing in the smell of greasy bacon with a weird blissful smile on her face.

I shook my head and grabbed some toast and jam. "Why are we friends again?"

"My weird matches your weird."

True enough, I thought as I halted in the middle of adding the white chocolate spread on top of my jam. My eyes met Marlene's over the breakfast table and we burst out laughing.

All things considered, it was good to be home again.


	2. Introducing Satisfaction

_Hello my lovelies,_

 _As you might notice, this fic isn't like the ones I've written before. I've decided to challenge myself by writing this story in two different times. Nearly every chapter will be accompanied by a "past" chapter. It's my intention to write two love stories in this fic, the past one that brought Jules to where she is at the start of this fic and the one that'll be a part of her future._

 _Am I making any sense?_

 _No?_

 _I guess the best way to find out what I'm trying to do is by giving it a shot and reading the next chapter._

 _Thank you for your kind reviews, follows and faves._

 _You guys are amazing._

 _Love,_

 _Kelly_

* * *

 **2: Introducing Satisfaction**

 _One year earlier…_

"I really don't think I can do this, Marlene." I was hyperventilating.

Okay, maybe I was overreacting just a little. I wasn't hyperventilating, but my heartrate had upped its pace, and I felt pearls forming on my forehead. I was itching to wipe them off, but my hands were too sweaty themselves. It'd be like trying to put out a fire with a match.

It's not going to work.

"Yes, you can. There's no need to stress out so much. He'll say yes, you know."

But why would he? Bass Olmen may not be the hottest Quidditch player in the game—that title went begrudgingly to Sirius Black—but he was the lad I'd been crushing on for seven months and eight days now.

Not that I was counting.

Marlene used to argue that it'd been far longer than that. You _realised_ you were crushing on him seven months and eight days ago, she'd say. You've been a goner for longer than that.

Like any wise, self-respecting girl I rejected her statement every time.

I wasn't the right girl for Bass. I was the weird one on the team. Oddly competitive—rivalling James' own fight lust—and a bizarre compilation of facial expressions and clumsiness that somehow resulted in the great Chaser I was.

Not to mention that there was no filter to be found between my mouth and brain. I vomited thoughts at the most inappropriate times, and Bass was… Well, he was well-collected, he was regal almost. Not that odd of an adjective to put to his name when you know his family is one of the richest in Europe. I didn't care about the money though. What I cared about was how we could talk about book characters all night long.

Imagining worlds far more fantastical than our own.

Heh. Who would have thought I'd ever say that when I came as a tiny Muggleborn to this castle five years ago?

"Are you going to keep avoiding this for the rest of the year?" Marlene whispered as the space between us and him grew smaller by every step we took.

"I can try," I hissed back, swiping at my forehead. I'm sure I made a charming picture. Why wouldn't Bass date me indeed.

"You've talked to him so often before," Marlene pointed out unreasonably. "Why would it be any different now?"

Because he'd know I liked him.

Because he'd be able to crush me with just a slight change in his facial expression.

Because him laughing away my feelings would kill me.

I decided that her question was better left unanswered. Especially since the victim of my admiration had just come into hearing distance.

"Juliet," he greeted me with a grin that others might have found 'cute', but I found charming. There was a difference. Cute made me think of puppies and sunshine, charming however… My heart was aflutter. "How's McGonagall doing? Did you leave her in a good mood for me?" he joked, knowing that I'd just had Transfig. We had a short break between classes now before McGonagall was to teach the seventh years.

"My wit warmed her up for you," I told him easily, pushing thoughts of kissing him and messing his short blond hair up out of my mind. "Try to keep it that way. She promised to correct our essays tonight, so we need her happy."

Bass winked. "I'm nothing if not satisfactory."

Marlene snorted. "That's what they all say."

Bass' grin widened, and I laughed.

"But what about your other fans," I said on a dramatic exhale. "Aren't we to be satisfied?"

"There's plenty of me to go around, my dear," he replied and our eyes caught, my breath hitched and he started laughing uncontrollably. I joined him a few heartbeats later, hoping that my slight pause had gone unnoticed.

When I looked at Marlene, I knew that only fools hoped to hide something from their best friends. Marlene knew and saw all.

She shook her head at me and rolled her eyes.

Maybe we were such good friends because she tolerated my drama and I was good at ignoring her eyerolls.

Our motto came back to mind. My weird matches your weird.

His hand landed on my forearm. I swallowed and tried to steady myself, but somehow managed to nearly lose my balance.

His grip tightened, and he chuckled. "Steady there, Jules. You wouldn't want to fall for me," he teased.

"Erh," I said, my blood racing to my face to embarrass me further. "I won't."

Because I already had.

He laughed again and shook his head. His thumb caressed my jumper reassuringly for a second, and I could feel my balance tipping again. I think it's called swooning. "Anyway, I've got to go. Thanks for improving my shitty day." Bass kissed my cheek and nodded his goodbye to Marlene. "Girls, enjoy this lovely Thursday and stay awesome."

His eyes caught mine one last time. There's that bloody smile again, I thought blinking away the dazzlement from my eyes. He turned around and continued on his way.

"Bye." Larnes, you are a pathetic creature. I cleared my throat, his retreating back giving me the courage I'd lacked a few moments before. "Remember, Bass! Stay on McGonagall's good side!" I shouted after him.

He raised his hand in reply, showing that he'd heard me and I turned back to Marlene, who was staring at me with a mixture of disappointment and irritation.

"You can flirt like that, but you can't ask him out?"

"If by flirting you mean nearly falling on my face," I replied with slumped shoulders, "then yes."

"Everyone knows you're gravitationally impaired. I've stopped holding that against you years ago," she said, nudging me in a feeble attempt to cheer me up. "I'm sure he doesn't either."

"But he doesn't know me like you do," I pointed out very logically in my humble opinion. "He probably thinks I'm odd."

"Well," Marlene said matter-of-factly, "you are odd, my dear."

"Thanks. That makes me feel better."

Marlene sighed as she tugged me to the dungeons where we were about to be tormented by Slughorn and his eternal adoration for two of his students. Sometimes I thought he'd like to see Snape and Lily married off into the sunset, but then he'd have to deal with a furious James Potter. I didn't think Slughorn found it worth the hassle, but a man can still dream. That was probably why he kept putting Snape and Lily together, even though they had a huge fight last year and weren't on speaking terms anymore.

To say that our first Potions class last week had been awkward would probably be the understatement of our sixth year at Hogwarts.

Sometimes school was better than my Muggle soap operas.

"I don't get why you like him so much. He's cute, yes, but he's not that handsome. And I find the fact that he's always kissing your cheek a little weird," Marlene pointed out, ticking her reasons off her fingers as we went down a flight of stairs. Her hair was put up in a nice, perfect bun while my insane curls were dancing around my shoulders and blocking my view of one of Hogwarts' infamous false steps.

With a loud whoosh, a small shriek and in the middle of Marlene's third reason—and why doesn't he go to a hairdresser? Those blonde waves are ri-di-cu-lous—I lost my leg from the knee down to the staircase. My other knee hit the stone brutally, and I whimpered. Merlin, be damned. That hurt.

A group of Slytherins passed us by, laughing and giggling as the girls flicked their hair and glanced at me with distaste.

"That's how you see the difference between mongrels and good breeding," one of them said to her friends.

I glared at them, but Marlene mustn't have heard for she barely stopped explaining her "Bass List" as she pulled me up and continued on her merry way. I couldn't really blame her. I stepped through one of these steps at least once a week. "He's also so full of himself."

"He's a teenage boy," I pointed out, rubbing my throbbing knee. That was going to bruise.

The brown-headed girl that had spoken, Denise Avery, looked over her shoulder at us again. Her brother was two years older than her and in our year. Not that I liked him any better than I did her. She laughed again at my dispense.

"What's your problem?" Marlene shouted when she noticed.

"The only problem I have is that your friend goes to this school," Little Avery shouted back, causing her friends to titter.

Marlene took a step forward, but I grabbed her arm. "It's not worth it," I told her, really meaning it. "Some people are too small-minded to be ever considered intelligent. We really shouldn't judge her because my being here made her feel threatened and inferior to her position in the Wizarding World."

Now, I really had her attention. Little Avery turned around, her posse halting their steps expectantly. We were still on a staircase that could move at any second, which would undoubtedly make me tumble down the remaining twenty or so steps. None of us cared. I hoped I fell on Little Avery and squashed her bony frame with my fat ass.

Not that I was fat, but anyone would be considered overweight compared to her skinny body. Maybe I should consider joining the dark side. Being evil obviously burns more calories than playing Quidditch does.

"Are you saying you're better than me, you foul-mouthed Mudblood?" Little Avery asked me.

"Show her her place, Denise," the girl at her side with raven black hair cut into an ugly bob.

Marlene mock gasped. "Good Merlin, could it be?"

"What?" I asked just as surprised, clutching my cheeks like a really bad Hollywood actress and my throbbing knee temporarily forgotten.

"There's something in those skulls besides dust and cobwebs."

"No," I said dramatically, my hands still glued to my face as we turned to face them in mock alarm.

Little Avery scoffed at us. "You're not even worth the dirt under my shoe."

I gasped and shook my head slowly from side to side. If I hadn't looked odd before, I definitely did now. "She's insulting us, Marlene."

"Incredible," she breathed, fascinated like Newton must have done when he developed the principles of modern physics.

The group of Slytherins made ugly faces at our excellent performance and Little Avery stuck her nose in the air. "Come on, girls. These idiots are too stupid to realise when they've been insulted, anyway."

We watched them descend and waited a few more counts before rolling our eyes at each other.

"And we're the idiots?" Marlene asked angrily. "Who does that witch think she is? Marie-Antoinette? Well, I'm not going to eat her damn cake, and I have my pitchfork at the ready."

I finally let go of my cheeks, praying to Circe that they hadn't left dwarf-sized handprints on my skin. "Easy, Marlene. Fighting fourteen-year-olds isn't going to change anything."

"Well someone has to do something! These Slytherins are out of line. We're at war, Jules, we should be united at a time like this. Not turning a blind eye to that kind of behaviour."

All things considered the War had left Hogwarts fairly untouched. We knew there was something going on. There was an increase of murders happening out there, but most people stuck their head in the sand. Myself included.

"Let's hurry or we'll be late for Slughorn's class," I said instead, trying not to notice the disappointed look on Marlene's face because I refused to talk politics. Again.

Marlene was a do-gooder. She wanted to change the world and if anyone could, it'd be her for sure.

Me? I just wanted the world to see _me_.


	3. Mewling Kittens

_Hi,_

 _Thank you so much for the follows, faves and reviews!_

 _I hope you enjoy this chapter as much as I've enjoyed writing it. I had some giggles, not going to lie._

 _Love,_

 _Kelly_

* * *

 **3\. Mewling Kittens**

Everyone was staring at me.

At least that's how it felt.

"No one's staring," Marlene said for the umpteenth time. "Stop fidgeting." We were waiting by the classroom door, and she grabbed my hand that kept playing with my robes. A small gathering of fellow students had chosen to stand on the other side of the corridor, judging me. Staring at me.

"Marlene, I'm going to say this in the nicest way I possibly can," I whispered, pulling my hand free from under hers. "Please, drop it."

Marlene hooked her arm through mine and pulled me closer to her side. "I just want you to know that I'm here for you, okay? You're still suffering from a broken heart and although I can't help you with those whispering idiots, I can help you piece your heart back together."

I laughed despite myself. "You need to stop stealing Lily's romance novels," I pointed out, referring to our Head Girl and dorm mate. "She hides them for a reason you know."

"I'm not ashamed of the things I read, and neither should Lily be."

I didn't point out that Lily hid those books not out of shame but because Marlene had a tendency to fold the pages to mark her spot. Lily's books were sacred to the girl. If you wanted to see her truly get mad, interrupt her while reading a romance novel or dog ear a page in one of her books. That girl is frighteningly inventive when it comes to hexes and cuss words alike.

She demonstrated the workings of a particular nasty tickling hex that had my dear old captain crying on the floor after a minute. Lily released him only because Remus pointed out that James had wanted to apologise for bumping into her earlier that day.

Not that anyone believed that was an accident, but who was Lily to stop his personal growth? The evolution from boyhood to man didn't come one second too soon. Most of us knew that James' arrogance was just a mask, it was a difficult one to see through sometimes.

Professor Flitwick made his way through the hall, the sea of students parting like the red sea before him. He was a tiny man and there were rumours going around that he was part elf or goblin. If I was to believe Peeves—a poltergeist and a nasty little bugger—Flitwick was an exiled _dweorg_ , the Old English version of dwarf or so the dictionary assured me. Peeves swears up, down, sideways and backways that Flitwick was banished from his tribe of mountain dwarves for baking too many cakes and fattening the entire mountain population.

Ridiculous and quite offensive.

Marlene unhooked herself from my arm when he passed us by.

"Thanks for waiting with me," I told her gratefully, knowing that she was probably going to be late for Divination because of me, "but you know you didn't have to, right?"

"Hey, there's nothing I wouldn't do for my best friend."

Merlin, I loved that girl.

"Now get in there and show them that Juliet Larnes isn't to be messed with." Marlene clapped her hands and her straight blond hair framing her face perfectly danced as she turned around. She was the epitome of beauty and, really, I couldn't hold Remus' crush against him if I'd tried.

Marlene had that effortless beauty about her. She wasn't the prettiest girl in school with those perfect features you only really saw in Witch Weekly, but her kindness shone through her eyes. A day with Marlene was therapy for the soul. It healed all wounds.

Marlene was beautiful in her own way, despite her nose being too big for her heart shaped face or her eyebrows being just a bit too wild and bushy to be considered fashionable. To me, she was the most gorgeous girl in school.

And maybe it was just a best friend's duty to feel that way, but Remus' love struck eyes told me something else entirely.

We entered the classroom, and I picked my usual seat. Nearly the entire year had chosen Charms as a course last year, save for Marlene, Sariah and some Slytherins. Merlin knows why since nearly every job requires some kind of knowledge of Charms. The room was already filling up nicely as Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs took their seats.

I was seated next to Zachariah Pocks, a Hufflepuff with spiky brown hair who rarely spoke up during class. Which, right now, sounded like music to my ears. We smiled our hellos at each other and I grabbed my textbook from my messenger bag, sat back and waited for class to start.

Lily Evans entered the classroom, just on time, which wasn't her usual MO. She nodded her apology to the professor and, surprisingly, smiled my way.

I returned the smile of course. I had no problem with Lily or Dorcas, the girl who'd saved her a seat in the front row. It's just that I didn't know them that well. Marlene and I were known to live in our own little world and we liked it that way. Lily was sociable enough, and I definitely preferred her over Sariah and Suzanna, our other two dorm mates, but somehow we'd never really clicked. Maybe because I hadn't given her much of a chance, or maybe she didn't like how I used to worship James' Quidditch skills.

Lily and Dorcas were two peas in a pot, and you rarely saw one without the other. I'd often see them sitting outside the Fat Lady's portrait doing their homework together after McGonagall kicked Dorcas out of our common room again. For a Head Girl, Lily Evans had broken her fair share of rules. They were more like minor violations, but violations nonetheless.

"I heard Bass deflowered her in the changing room."

I don't know who said it, but it triggered a memory of lips and touches so strong I shivered in my seat. It wasn't the good kind of shiver either. Memories like that either made me burst into tears or they turned me into a rampaging hurricane. Either way, they— _he_ —tore me to bits.

I looked around to see who'd spoken up, but no one would meet my eyes. It wasn't that hard to follow the snickers though. Suzanna Reeses was the culprit of today's bit of gossip. There was nothing like sisterly love from the girl you shared a bedroom with to warm your heart, right?

"At least some of us actually have people that want to do them, Suzie," someone said sweetly. My back stiffened at the sound of Sirius Black's voice coming to my rescue.

The class tittered at Suzanna's expense, and I felt a pang of pity that I firmly squashed as soon as it sparked to life. Suzanna didn't deserve my pity after the way she treated me last year.

"Doesn't mean those people have standards though," he whispered as he passed me by so he could take his seat at the back of the class.

I tried not to show how deeply his words cut because ever since B-

Ever since _he_ had come into my life, I'd questioned my standards as well. Maybe I was just another teenager with no self-respect. Maybe I'd brought this all on myself.

These thoughts weren't new, but they hit home as if I heard them for the first time. I was a festering wound my thoughts rained salt upon.

Not that it was my standards Sirius was referring to, anyway.

Remus and Peter followed Sirius to the back without a word although I thought I heard Remus berate Sirius as soon as they sat down. James stopped at my desk, however, hands in his pockets and his shoulder bag bumped into the table to my left when he turned towards me.

"We have practice this Saturday at six." His tone was clipped and brisk, but at least he was talking to me again. His black hair was as messy as always and his glasses had a tiny crack at the upper right corner. How did it get there? James was always very peculiar for his glasses. Come to think of it, he treated them almost with as much care as Lily did her books.

"At dinnertime?" I asked slowly, my voice low. I had to tread carefully here because now that James had chosen to acknowledge my existence, I didn't want him to verbally slaughter me.

James Potter shouting at me was a once-in-a-lifetime-journey I never wanted to book again.

I would hate missing dinner though, but I was sure I could convince Marlene to save me a plate of something.

"In the morning." He moved away again, and I stared straight ahead, wondering how I was ever going to find my way to the pitch at six in the morning without breakfast, when I heard him say my name.

I turned around in my seat and found the four boys staring at me. Remus with a worried frown, Peter had his head cocked, James was looking at me thoughtfully and Sirius had that infuriating smirk on his face again.

"Don't be late, Larnes," James said simply, before turning to Sirius and whispering something. Sirius' eyes didn't leave mine. They were nice eyes, really, and if he had been anyone else, I really would have considered him handsome. Black hair, reaching just past his jawline, grey eyes that always seemed to twinkle with mischief and that bloody smirk. Too bad that he was rotten to the core, too.

"Something I can do for you?" Sirius asked with a raised eyebrow when it became apparent that I was apparently the one staring.

"I doubt it," I said and turned around faster than my Nimbus 500. I could feel myself turn a charming shade of tomato red and crossed my arms in defiance as laughter filled the classroom again. Flitwick's tiny fist tapped his desk to call us all back to order. He really ought to do something about that crazy grey hair.

"Now that everyone's arrived, I would like you to focus your attention on the spell on page thirteen." I dutifully opened my Charms textbook

I zoned out his high-pitched voice and closed my eyes for a second. I wanted this day to be over already. Life had been so much easier when I'd been somewhat invisible, or at least unnoticeable.

It wasn't until class was halfway and I was waving my wand around like a lunatic that I realised Lily and the Marauders had arrived mere seconds apart.

* * *

I was seated in the common room, writing a letter to my brother after a hard day of dodging gossipers and nasty glares from girls I must somehow have wronged in the past. There was no denying that my past relationship made me the Hogwarts School Slag. It was a crown I hadn't deserved but one that I was forced to wear now.

Not that I was writing any of that to my brother. Corin wouldn't understand what it'd be like to be called a slag if he tried. I loved that giant nerd, but none of his physics equations were going to help me figure out this one.

So instead I talked about the new gravity defying spell Flitwick had taught us today. I told him about how I dreaded going back to the Owlery to send this letter and, last but not least, I wrote about the captain of my Quidditch team and how he hadn't kicked me off it yet.

"How is Corin doing nowadays?" Marlene asked when I was blowing my ink dry.

I looked at her over my parchment and shrugged. "Apparently Mary and him are going through a bit of a rough patch."

"Oh? How come?"

I shook my head. "I don't know, but he hasn't mentioned her once in his letter. Something's up, but I figured that if he wanted to talk about it he'd bring her up first, right?"

"I never understood why he's with her," Marlene offered. "I mean, your brother is a bit of a… challenge with his number wizardry- ""He's a physicist," I laughed. Number wizardry. That was a new one.

"And I don't know what that is," Marlene said and held up her hand when I opened my mouth to explain it again. "And that's fine. I just… Despite all of that he is kind of handsome, you know? In an adorable kind of way. But that Mary girl… She's so mean."

"She isn't mean," I said slowly. "She's just socially awkward."

"No, Jules, you're socially awkward. She's the kind of person to kick a kitten when it's down."

I shook my head again but didn't even try to correct Marlene. Leeney used to have a bit of a crush on my brother when we were younger, and him dating "Miss Ordimary"—as Marlene had dubbed her in a fit of rage when she was fourteen—was something she had yet to forgive him for.

"Anyhow, what do we have tomorrow morning?" I said, gently dabbing my finger on the ink to see if the parchment was dry enough to fold yet.

It was.

"Defense Against the Dark Arts," Marlene grinned. She loved DADA. Me on the other hand, not so much. I sucked at it, which was probably one of my biggest character flaws as a Gryffindor. "Don't look so sour, Jules. You did fine last year."

"Exceeds Expectations isn't 'fine'. I barely made it to this year's class!" I folded my parchment neatly and made a mental note to put it in my DADA textbook later so I could drop it off on my way to class.

"Well, you needed an E to get in, and you got one," Marlene said, shrugging before she glanced at her Transfiguration homework again. "Honestly, why do we need to write another essay on this?"

I grinned and knew Marlene was struggling with the mathematics of Transfiguration as she had since the very beginning of our first year at Hogwarts. McGonagall had asked us to write another paper explaining how we could figure out if our intended transfiguration was possible.

The intended transformation is always influenced by the weight, your wand power, the viciousness, your concentration and another variable. It was a simple equation, really, but then again thanks to my brother schooling me in mathematics and physics since I was a little girl I liked all scientific forms of magic. Arithmancy was more of a hobby than a class for me these days.

"Because," I replied happily, tapping my fingers on the wooden table with barely withheld anticipated glee, "she is preparing us for Untransfiguration." Untransfiguration was the art of undoing a previous transfiguration. So it was basically both a counter-spell and a transfiguration. I had been itching to try it out since I got my schoolbooks this Summer, but since I was living with Muggles, I'd previously been unable to.

Since start of this school year, I'd so far managed to undo the transformation of small things and I couldn't wait to start with the big stuff. I also really wanted to address becoming an Animagus with McGonagall.

"You're so much like your brother sometimes," Marlene said with a faux-disgusted look on her face. "It's disconcerting sometimes."

I laughed it off. "If only I had my brother's brains," I said, "I wouldn't have to struggle my way through DADA."

"Your brother would run out of the DADA classroom screaming with his uniform on backwards," Marlene pointed out.

I grimaced. I had caught him on his way to our cousin Felicia's wedding with his jacket on backwards once. Not that I would ever admit that to Marlene; she'd never let him live it down. "Fair enough."

Marlene smiled like a queen victorious in battle and focused her attention back on her essay. I had already finished the Transfig homework and since my letter to Corin was now finished, I could let my wrist rest. It was Thursday already, and the week was slowly coming at an end.

At least here, now that the storm had slowly passed and my fellow Gryffindors had started to accept me back into their fold (after their God and King Potter had led by example earlier today), I could breathe again. I laid my head down on my arms on the wooden table, after I had put my stuff back into my bag, and just stared at the common room. I liked how all these different, chaotic shades of red were combined to create a homey and welcome feel. The huge fireplace, dominating the wall opposite me was adorned with portraits of lions roaring. The fire would be lit later tonight when most of the younger Gryffindors had already gone to bed while the older students stayed out here to study and gossip.

I loved this place and I couldn't believe that it was already my last year. Soon I was going to leave and never come back. Although student life here could be hard as a Muggleborn with a reputation, the students in this tower were like family to me.

Well, except maybe the one entering now. Peter Pettigrew and Sirius Black were joking around as they fell into the room, Sirius tackling Peter to the ground with a mighty roar. He probably thought he'd sound just like the lions at the fireplace, while all I could think of was a mewling kitten begging for attention.

"Ugh," I muttered under my breath, turning my head to look outside. Our table had been shoved against one of the tower windows that looked out over the castle grounds.

"Must they always make such a spectacle of themselves?" I heard Lily sigh irritably from one of the cosy armchairs.

Sometimes I would swear that girl could read minds.


	4. Hurt Pride

_Hi,_

 _Thank you so much for the follows, faves and reviews!_

 _Updating is going a bit slower than anticipated. I'm waiting for the new Sarah J Maas book to find its way to my porch and am rereading the ACOTAR series while I wait. I guess I lost track of time a little. Whoops._

 _Still, I hope you can forgive me and please enjoy this new chapter! I can't wait to hear your thoughts on Bass. He's a bit of a mix of two guys I know, which makes this all the more awkward... Whoops times two._

 _Love,_

 _Kelly_

* * *

 **4\. Hurt Pride**

 _One year earlier…_

I was seated by the lake, already studying for DADA. I'd figured I'd take as many seemingly useful classes as I probably could, since I'd had no idea what I wanted to be later in life. I'd had the talk with McGonagall of course, and I was supposed to have a followup interview somewhere later this year, but her disappointment had cut deep. How was she going to help me if I had no idea who I was or who I'd like to become?

McGonagall, however, was nothing if not supportive and a little scary when determined. She'd given me so many brochures and pamphlets of jobs she thought might suit me that I might as well have started a small collection.

I sighed and caught myself biting my nails again. Unlike Marlene's, mine were horrid to look at. It wasn't like I could play Quidditch, catch that stupid, hard Quaffle, and still have gorgeous looking nails. So I kept them short. Marlene always offered to do my nails for me since she knew how much I hated them.

I liked wearing skirts and heels—even though the latter combined with my graceful self had already given me two broken ankles. Thank Merlin for Pomfrey or I wouldn't have been able to wear heels ever again. I liked how much taller they made me, like I was of some importance all of a sudden. It was ridiculous of course, your height had no input when it came to your importance.

Heels also made my ass look good which was something to take into account as well.

My left hand moved to the small bow I'd put in my hair earlier that morning. It was still firmly in place thanks to the enchantment Marlene had taught me.

Make up, however, wasn't really my forte. I was good at putting on some mascara if need be, but I would never be able to figure out how to do my make up like Marlene. Give that girl a brush and some powder and she'd look like royalty in a matter of minutes.

Me? I was more likely to resemble a deceased clown. Bless Witch Weekly for their makeup spells.

"What a day," a voice muttered as its owner plopped down next to me on the grass.

I hadn't even heard Bass walk up to me, and I turned a little more towards him, inviting him to keep talking to me with my body language. "Had a bad one, I gather?"

It was a little frisky out, but that was to be expected in the Scottish Highlands in early October.

"The worst," he sighed, signs of fatigue painting his face older than his eighteen years. His hand massaged his neck, and he threw his head to the side a little, exposing his throat to me. I was frozen in place as my eyes followed his every movement.

I couldn't help but wonder what his skin tasted like or fantasize of how much I wanted to form a trail of kisses from his Adam's apple to his mouth.

I blinked and came back to Earth. Apparently Bass had been lamenting his bad fortune while I'd been off in Julesland.

"-and then James said I should probably work out more. As if going for a jog around the lake every morning isn't enough of a workout already." He sighed deeply and his hand fell away from his neck. I wondered if I dared to continue the massage myself. "I don't see him doing the same thing."

That's because James and Sirius took a run around the grounds every other night, I didn't say because Bass knew that already. He was just being a little petty about the whole incident.

"You're a great Seeker," I offered supportively. "What kind of exercises does James want you to do?"

He shut me down. "I don't want to talk about it anymore." This was usually the case with Bass, he'd start complaining about something and when I tried to find a solution to his problem, he'd change the subject. "I'd rather talk about you. How's your day been?" His eyes found mine, and I felt like I was the centre of the universe. How did he do that?

"Okay so far," I said, feeling self-conscious about the fact that nothing interesting ever happened in my life. "Apparently Peeves put something in Slughorn's drink that made him hiccup uncontrollably, so Potions class was cancelled today."

"Oh yeah," Bass grinned, "I'd heard about that. Something to do with Slughorn hitting Peeves?"

As if Slughorn could ever be fast enough to hit Peeves. "No. Peeves and Slughorn got into it over something yesterday, I don't really know what, and apparently Slughorn slung some spell Peeves' way. You know how Peeves is when you cross him."

Bass chuckled. "Yeah. He likes his pranks to serve as payback that one."

Which was why most of the students steered clear from Peeves if they could. Not the Marauders though—that's the name James and his crew called themselves when in private, although the whole school knew about it. Those five were thick as thieves.

I wondered if Peeves knew what the nicknames stood for. I'd only heard them a few times, but they all seemed to involve tails and feet of some sort. Strange lot.

"Yeah, so no Potions for me today," I finished lamely.

Bass nodded to the book on my lap. "And you decided to do some homework instead?"

I felt myself flush. Merlin, Larnes, you're boring as hell. "Erh—yeah."

"You see, that's what I admire about you so much, Juliet. You're always on top of everything. You know Defense isn't your strong suit, so you decide to tackle it in advance. Your perseverance is admiring."

My cheeks were tingling with all the blood that currently resided in them. "Oh hush," I muttered, looking away.

He grabbed my hand and his thumb stroked mine reassuringly. "I'm not saying this to embarrass you," he promised. "I just wish others could be more like you sometimes."

I shook my head with an awkward little laugh. "You're crazy." This was not how I was going to win him over, I knew. He must think I didn't like him as anything more than a friend, the way I kept deflecting his compliments. It wasn't his fault I was so bad at accepting any form of praise.

I just don't handle it well.

"But you still like me for it," he teased.

"True," I said without thinking, still mulling over the compliment thing and froze when I realised what I'd said.

He nudged me in the side with a surprised laugh. "Did you read the last edition of the Quidditch Guide?" He was referring to the most popular Quidditch magazine in Britain and the rest of Europe.

Nothing got me going like Quidditch. I shut the DADA book and turned my attention fully to the conversation at hand. I launched into how I thought the Toppovic manoeuvre was genius and how I couldn't wait to try it out myself. I talked about the new broomsticks coming out and speculated about their prices. I talked about a billion things while all the while not talking about anything that I really wanted to say to him.

Bass just sat there, listening to my enthusiastic tales of magical sports with a faint smile on his face, as if he couldn't imagine doing anything else with his time right now. As if he valued our moments together just as much as I did. The amused sparkle in his eyes edged me on and it was only after I'd made him laugh for the second time with some lame pun about broomsticks and male genitalia that I noticed he was still holding my hand. I felt stupid for rambling on and on all of a sudden and fell silent, wondering if I'd been boring him after all and he was too polite to say so.

"You're special, you know that?" he said with a most peculiar expression on his face that I couldn't place. He blinked, and the expression was replaced with a kind smile. "I've got to go though, Jules. I've got a hot date with Frank."

Frank Longbottom, his best friend.

"How is Alice?" I'd always liked Alice, his current girlfriend, although we hadn't really spoken much since she was two years ahead of me. She'd been more talkative with Lily and Dorcas though and I still heard them mention her sometimes.

"Good," Bass shrugged. "We don't talk about her that much, I guess. Frank does complain that she's awfully busy with her Auror training. It's been a few years since they took any new applicants on after the tests, so she's eager to prove her worth."

"I'm sure she'll make the cut," I offered. Alice had been a fellow Gryffindor of mine, a kind-hearted but fierce blonde. I'd never cross her, anyway.

"That's kind of you to say," Bass said, before he got up. "I'll talk to you later?"

I nodded and opened my DADA book again although there was little to no chance in hell that I was going to be able to focus now.

I watched him go from the corner of my eye, seeing him wave to some other students as he made his way to the castle.

 _You're special, you know that?_

What did that even mean? And was it good to be special? It had a bit of a negative feel to it for me. Maybe I should ask Marlene later.

* * *

I was seated at the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall, waiting till Marlene arrived to have dinner with me. I thought it was a little odd that she wasn't here yet since Marlene lived for food. I was just about to get up and go find her when my Quidditch captain took a seat next to me. Peter Pettigrew sat down in front of me with Remus Lupin beside him.

Remus looked a little pale, but he was a pale guy. He must feel a little peaky, I thought.

"What's up?" James asked me, as if we ate together regularly and this wasn't weird in the slightest. It wasn't that James, and I never spoke outside of matches or training, but it was a bit of an oddity for sure. The only "Marauder" I had regular conversations with was Remus.

They were a handsome lot though. James Potter with his messy black hair, mischievous brown eyes and his tall frame. Remus Lupin with his sand coloured hair and kind smile. Even Peter wasn't that bad looking although he had seemed to have gained a lot of weight over the summer. It was just that his looks—flat, brown hair and blue eyes—were no match for his friends'.

I just nodded a hello and decided to remain put. This had to be about something or James would have chosen to sit closer to Lily, who was sat on the other side of the table, near the doors.

"So," James said as he kept piling chicken on his plate, "I was thinking, Larnes."

"Never a good sign," Peter quipped, making Remus grin.

James ignored them and left the chicken for the French beans. "We still need a new Beater and I want you there at try-outs tomorrow."

"Why?" I asked, slowly tearing a piece of bread from the loaf.

"Well," James said as he took a glass of water and set it near his overflowing plate. "Sirius and I will be there too and I need your input. You might be a bit of a klutz in daily life, but you are a good Quidditch player, Larnes. You might see something that I missed the last two try-outs."

It's true. We've been searching for a new Beater for three weeks now and still we had nothing. Gryffindor versus Hufflepuff was the first match of the season, and Hufflepuff didn't have to replace any players this year. They definitely had the advantage since they were all attuned to each other. We needed to find a new Beater and fast.

Not that Simon had added a lot of value to our team, but we needed one to reach the required numbers, to be _able_ to play. So a replacement was a must.

"Okay," I said slowly, wondering where this sudden faith in my Quidditch knowledge came from. James had told me not to intervene with his game plan before summer started last year. He'd been so cocky that he'd be the new cap which of course he turned out to be. Some people just had all the luck, I thought as I suppressed the disappointed feeling that it hadn't been _me_.

"Try to get some girls to apply too. I never understood why women are so reluctant to join Quidditch," James muttered under his breath and shovelled some food into his mouth.

"Well, we're usually not allowed to play since most people prefer male players," I offered. It was a huge injustice in my eyes and it was why I loved the Harpies so much, one of the few all female teams we had. They proved that women could kick ass and be bad ass just as much as male Quidditch players.

"Wha?" James asked, spraying chicken all over Remus.

Remus looked disgusted, the scar on the side of his face distorting as he grimaced, and wiped his face with an angry look. "Great manners, James. Your mother would be proud."

James swallowed and smiled cheekily. "Sorry, mate. My mum loves me though, you know that."

Remus rolled his eyes and threw a napkin at a shaking Peter, who was struggling to keep his laughter contained. Remus throwing a napkin at the shorter boy was funny enough to make even me giggle a little.

Remus smiled at me and I couldn't help but wonder how he got the scar again. The rumours about it were wild, but I never dared ask if it was true that he'd pissed off a baby Hippogriff as a toddler. It seemed unrealistic, but you never knew with these guys.

"Try to eat with your mouth shut, mate," Remus sighed, making Peter chortle and then roar with laughter, James soon following. The latter hiccupping a "yes, mom" as he did so.

I grinned at Remus and offered him another napkin. "You've got a little something here," I said, rubbing my own jawline, which set the two little kids seated beside us off again.

Remus took the napkin with a little huff and started scrubbing.

"You are a pig, mate," another voice said.

"There's a reason pots and kettles are black," James merely shrugged as Sirius made me scoot so he could sit next to James. I caught the name pun and wondered how often they used it. Especially since Sirius barely acknowledged it.

Sirius Black started piling a similar, outrageous amount of food on his plate as Jams had and only seemed to notice I was sitting there when he bumped into me, trying to reach the pumpkin juice.

"Oh. Larnes." He stared at me as if I'd just spat in his soup or something. "What are you doing here?"

I opened my mouth to reply, but James beat me to it. "I asked her to join us for try-outs tomorrow."

Sirius raised an eyebrow and looked me up and down, making me scowl. "Do try not to fall into me too often while we're standing on the pitch tomorrow," he said, referring to my notorious love-hate relationship with gravity.

I scowled. I never knew why Sirius didn't like me much, but then again there are few girls that he actually liked. I tried not to take it personally. "If I'm such a bother to you guys, I won't come."

"Don't be ridiculous," Remus said quickly.

"You're not a bother," Peter offered at the same time, his easy grin gone and replaced by a worried frown.

Sirius patted my hand. "That might be a good idea."

"Don't be ridiculous, Padfoot," James said from the other side of the black-haired stud that I wanted to pummel with the chicken everyone seemed to enjoy. "Larnes, here, is as much part of the team as you are, and she's far better at strategizing than you are. We need her."

Sirius grumbled something that sounded suspiciously like "I don't" and I got kicked in the shins by someone for it.

"Hey!" I shouted, annoyed by it all now.

"Oops," Remus said sheepishly, before I felt a swift movement pass by my leg and hitting Sirius'.

"Ow!"

"Be nice," Remus said with a stern look that somehow completely lost its severity because of the tiny piece of bean that still hung on his jaw.

Sirius shook his head and started eating his food in sullen silence.

I'd seen enough and didn't really fancy being ignored by the lot of them for the remainder of the meal. "I'll be there, Cap," I muttered and got up. I tried to step over the bench and I really must have been Morgana in a past life because my foot hooked behind the wood and I fell flat on my face.

The people around us started laughing, and I heard Sirius say: "Classic, Larnes."

I looked up and stared straight in Lily's compassionate face. She offered me a hand and helped me up.

"Evans!" James said, laughter still rich in his voice. "What brings you to our side of the Great Hall?"

"Are you hurt?" Lily asked me, ignoring James completely.

I grimaced. "Nothing but my pride." I looked around, hoping Bass hadn't seen. He was seated a dozen seats or so away from us and he sent me a sympathetic smile when he caught me looking. Drat it all.

Lily patted my hand. "I was actually looking for you. Marlene is devouring chicken like a madwoman at the front of the table and asked me if you wanted to join us there."

I hesitated for a second, wondering why Marlene hadn't come to me herself.

"Please," Lily said softly, and I nodded. We started walking away from the boys, and Lily smiled. "They weren't too awful to you, right?"

I shrugged. "They're never awful to me. Save Black. I don't know what I did to him."

"I believe he hates all women equally and we have Suzie to thank for that," Lily sighed. It was true that Suzanna—and the larger part of the Hogwarts female population—had hounded Sirius in the past for a chance to be taken on a date to Hogsmeade by him. Ever since Sirius went out of his way to converse with girls, but he still somehow found the time to date one of us every once in a while.

Black and girls… It was an odd marriage. He couldn't live with us, but he needed his shot of oestrogen every now and then.

"So…" Lily drawled as we neared Marlene, whose chin was covered with grease. Dorcas seemed deeply disturbed by the way my best friend didn't need to breathe in order for her to eat. "Was she raised by wolves?"

I laughed.


	5. Practice Makes Perfect

_I am so sorry. Between exams, boy drama (srsly don't piss of a fanfic author because you might just end up being in a fic) and binge watching, I've hadn't much time to write. My new goal in life is to write at least two to three chapters each week so I can update more frequently and systematically._

 _I'm exhausted right now and not a fan of this chapter at all. It's a bit of a filler, I'm afraid, but I hope that you'll still enjoy it nonetheless._

 _Enjoy the nice weather, fellow Europeans. Enjoy the weather wherever you are, fellow readers and writers._

 _Love,_

 _Kelly_

* * *

 **5\. Practice Makes Perfect**

It was six o'clock in the morning, and I was prepared to die. For an October morning it was already bloody chilly out, and my body protested me forcing it up and about at this ungodly hour loudly with a growling stomach and an angry grunting I couldn't seem to control with every step I took. I put a hand on my tummy and wondered if any of my team members could hear it rumble.

The wind played with my ponytail, whipping the back of my neck as it whooshed back and forth. It was going to be a rough morning to fly.

Our captain paced on the green grass in front of us, his quidditch robes swaying in the wind dramatically every time he turned. I didn't exchange any uncomfortable looks with my team members, looking straight at James as I ignored their gazes on me.

"Okay," James announced and came to an abrupt stop mid-stride. He turned towards us and pointed at me, singling me out already. "You failed us last year, Larnes. We've got a new seeker this year," the finger pointed to Weadowes. "You've never shown any romantic interest in women before, I don't expect you to start now but just in case you are banned from this Seeker's personal space. Good?" I stared at him blankly. This was just offensive enough that my stomach stopped its angry protesting for a few seconds as silence descended on the pitch and every one of my teammates stared at me. "Good. We're going to start with a new cardio training programme."

I groaned, and I wasn't the only one. I hated running.

"Just for that we're going to chant the three Quidditch rules while we're doing four laps around the pitch."

Sirius Black's moan was loudest of all. "C'mon, mate, you can't be serious."

"Five laps!" James barked.

I closed my eyes and gently laid my broom down on the ground. I'd complained how the wind would make it difficult to fly. Maybe this was the universe telling me to be careful what I wished for.

James clapped his hands and like well-trained dogs we started running at a steady pace that he quickly upped.

"I can't hear you!" James looked at us over his shoulder, jogging alongside Sirius at the front of the pack. I prayed to Merlin, Morgana and Circe he'd fall over his own feet. A face plant was just what our dear captain needed in my humble opinion.

"No dating team members," Ciara and Georges shouted at the same time.

"Be punctual," I chimed in together with Sirius and James.

"Quidditch comes first," the whole team shouted. The sound of those three rules echoing over the field as we did our ridiculous amount of laps became a breathless remix of feet hitting the dewy grass, heavy breathing and a seemingly fine James asking us if we were really this out of shape. He sounded about as disappointed as Marlene's mother had when she saw us waggling into their rented cottage in Bath. We were in a drunken stupor, but in our defence it had been the second day of the Christmas holidays last year. Our first taste of freedom in months.

 _Does your mother know you drink this much? Does she approve this behaviour?_ she'd asked me, and I couldn't have felt more of a bad influence that day if she'd told me I was the reincarnation of Mordred himself.

"Yes, James," Ciara wheezed next to me so the cap wouldn't hear, "we really are, you evil bastard."

I had just enough energy to curl the corners of my lips. "Sorry."

I saw her look at me, but didn't turn my head to address the matter further. I really was sorry that James felt like running us into the ground was necessary because of my stupidity last year. I'd been out of sorts, and he'd apparently thought that meant we were all out of shape.

We'd stopped chanting the rules a lap or so ago, and when the torture finally ended, I fell on the grass in an exhausted heap.

Maybe James did have somewhat of a point. I was so soft that I was a shapeless blob on the pitch, wishing the ground would swallow me whole and spit me out in my bed. Where I belonged.

Bloody hell, it was nearly seven am. I should have been happily snoring in bed like the rest of my dormmates.

"Why did you apologise earlier?" Ciara asked me and sat down next to me, apparently not caring about the morning dew soaking her pants.

I felt my eyes roll towards her in their sockets as my breathing came in rapid gasps and wheezes. Merlin, Jules. This is bad. "Because," I said when I felt comfortable enough to use my words again after a minute, "this is partly my fault."

"Damn right," I heard Bowles murmur as he moved past us to stand with Weadowes. Bowles was a tall guy with spiky blond hair and blue eyes. His face was still dotted with freckles, which gave him this trustworthy look. I'd never liked him though, probably because he idolised Black too much. He was a good chaser though.

Weadowes was our keeper and generally didn't say much. He grunted now and then, but for a big, burly guy he'd surprised us all today. He wasn't even out of breath.

Maybe he'd give me some tips if James let me near enough to another male player to ask.

Ciara didn't say anything at first, but then gave me a kind smile. "You had a bad day."

"Bad year," I muttered dramatically.

"Bass was an asshole, and he got inside your head."

I shuddered when I remembered where else he'd gotten into. Like my knickers.

"Don't be too hard on yourself that's our job," Ciara joked as I sat up, tired of feeling like a waste of space on the grass.

I swallowed. "Is it weird that I still looked for his name on the list?"

"List?"

"The list James hung in our common room. You know, the one with all our team members on?"

Ciara's voice turned gentle. "Last year was his last one here, you know that. I doubt James would have let him back on the team even if it hadn't been. Not after the stunt he pulled."

I shook my head. It hadn't all been Bass' fault. None of it had been his fault, really. I could have used my head better, I should have been less naïve, less trusting. It was like Marlene always said, the only thing you can trust a man with is his dick and his mother.

And then I was the dramatic one according to her.

Ciara gave me a sweaty, sideways hug. "I know we aren't that close, but find me if you ever need to talk, okay? I promise I won't judge you."

I gave her a small smile. "Thanks."

We looked up when we heard James clapping his hands. "Enough with the lazying about. This is a Quidditch practice, not a snooze fest. I'd like to see everyone give me twenty-five sit-ups. Your throw is only as strong as your core, people."

"I'll show him how good my throw is," Ciara muttered darkly under her breath and I laughed.

James pointed towards us. "I don't see you doing any sit-ups, girls."

I looked around and saw that everyone had already started doing as our cap had bid. Sirius Black gave me the stink eye every time his chin reached above his knees. Show off.

Ciara sighed, I groaned and together we started the sit-ups.

* * *

After practice I felt like I'd died. Each limb felt like it was made from spaghetti, which meant that I was going to feel like I'd died three days ago tomorrow morning. We'd all missed breakfast, but Marlene had been kind enough to save me some. She swore that she'd saved me four pancakes and a croissant, but all that'd remained were two pancakes and one third of the croissant when I came to join her at ten.

Still, I appreciated the effort and her genetics for allowing her to eat so much without needing to exercise to keep that body of hers so fit.

Life sometimes just wasn't fair, I thought as I squeezed the fat on my thigh.

"I'm glad you don't look as blotched anymore," Marlene commented somewhere that Saturday afternoon. "You're never gonna find yourself a man when you look like you've got some kind of disease."

Then again Marlene's genes made her so like her mother sometimes, and I felt slightly less envious.

"I'm off men, remember?" I said, trying not to cringe at the thought of a new guy in my life.

"I've noticed," Marlene commented as she beat my ass at Exploding Snap again with a bright smile. I flinched when the whole thing blew up in my face. "Don't think I haven't seen you avoid every guy's eye for the past few weeks."

"I have made eye contact with guys, Marlene," I said, rolling my eyes and sat back in my chair. I didn't want to play anymore.

"Remus Lupin does not count," she pointed out.

"He's a guy," I offered.

"That's a questionable statement."

"That's mean." And undeserved.

Marlene shrugged. "Be that as it may, facts are that Remus doesn't date. Why do you think that is?"

"He'd date you," I argued loyally. I'd always liked Remus, and I knew that Marlene deep down appreciated him too. She just needed something to bitch about if the stubborn twist of her lips was any indication. "He's sweet, loyal, funny, and he's super smart."

"Maybe you should date him then," Marlene replied.

My face contorted before I could stop it.

"AHA!" Marlene shouted, drawing the attention of several other students in the Great Hall towards us. "I knew it. Not all men are of the Bass variety, my dear. It's time to get back on the wagon, so to speak."

"I'll catch the next train, thank you," I replied stiffly.

Marlene's expression softened. "Jules," she started, but I held up my hand.

"Next subject, please."

"We need to talk about this."

"We've talked about this plenty of times."

"Not really," she said softly, gently as if I was a frail little thing ready to break at any time. The tone of her voice alone made the tears gather in my eyes, but I blinked them away.

I wasn't frail. I wasn't about to break. I was never going to let anyone make me feel like I wasn't even worth the dirt on their shoes.

"I really like those heavy doors," I said looking at the doors providing entrance to the Great Hall. "They have something ancient about them, don't you think? If only those doors could talk. I'd love to hear the tales they'd tell. Do you think they were here when Godric Gryffindor roamed these corridors? I just adore them, even though there isn't a lot of detail in the wood. This place would feel off without them, don't you think?"

Marlene just stared at me solemnly, unimpressed with my brave attempt to spice our conversation up a little.

"Then again this place would feel off without Dumbledore as well, but I think it's safe to say he wasn't here when Gryffindor was alive. I'm not even sure he's going to become much older… That man must be around a hundred-and-twenty?" I said, knowing full well that Dumbledore was nowhere near that age. It was the beard though. The beard made him look like a kind-hearted grandfather. I thought I'd read somewhere once that the Dumbledores hadn't always been such an upstanding family, but that could have been nothing but ugly gossip.

Albus Dumbledore was the epitome of all things kind and good, and it'd be a sad day when he left this world.

"How great would it be to have Dumbledore as your grandpa though?"

Marlene raised an eyebrow, but still didn't speak.

"Could you just imagine the Christmas dinners? They'd be so much fun."

"Right," Marlene finally spoke. "Good thing Christmas is still a few months off. I don't think Dumbledore wants to spend it with Ordimary, so you might have to look for a different sister-in-law before you adopt Dumbledore as your new grandpa. Ordimary would turn him into an evil wizard set on destroying the universe."

I snorted, glad that she finally hopped on _my_ wagon out of Boystown. "What's got your knickers in a knot? First you're trash talking Remus, now Mary."

Marlene shrugged. "Just a bad few minutes I'm stretching into a bad day, I guess."

Sounded like my kind of activity. "What happened?"

"I did something stupid," she finally admitted and looked away from me. "But I don't want to discuss it."

I could point out that I hadn't wanted to discuss boys either, but I could see that Marlene—my spirited, playful and joking Marlene—was upset by whatever it was. She'd tell me when she was ready, I figured.

We sat there in silence for a while until Marlene pointed out that it looked like we were attending a funeral. I cracked a smile, and she winked at me.

"How about another game of Snap?" Marlene asked as she rearranged the pieces.

I made a face. I really didn't fancy another game of getting my arse handed to me. "I'd rather not."

"I'll throw some dessert in Sirius' face during dinner if you do?"

I remembered the angry, judgemental look in his eyes during practice. "Fine," I said, wanting to see that stare directed at someone else for once. Besides, I was sure that he'd rock the dessert look. "Make the dessert chocolate ice cream, and I'll suffer through two games of Snap for you."

"Merlin," Marlene said as she blinked up at me with a faux-smitten look on her face. "If only you were born a man."

I threw my head back and laughed. It felt like it'd been a while that I'd laughed so obnoxiously loud but it felt good to let it all go for a while.


	6. Trying Times in Reds and Golds

**6\. Trying Times in Reds and Golds**

 _One year earlier…_

How did James expect me to find a new Beater in less than 24 hours? Especially when he hadn't managed to find one himself. Did he think I was a miracle worker? He'd been on the lookout since before the summer hols. We'd all known that James would be our new commander-in-chief once Roger left the fold. There are rumours that he's currently training for the Cannons, and a small part of me wondered if my future lay there.

Not with the Chudley Cannons because everyone knew that those players in orange hadn't won the League Cup since 1892. Maybe the Holyhead Harpies though. They were the second oldest team in the league and only hired female players.

McGonagall wouldn't want to hear it, of course, since a future in sports is no future at all. My father would strongly agree. Come to think of it, my father and McGonagall would probably hit it off right away. They were both practical and had a stern look on their faces.

I remembered when the girl next door refused to come play with me and my brother as long as my father was home. "Is he gone yet?" she would ask us. If we replied negatively, she'd just shook her head and ask if we came over to her house instead.

It was a real bother, but something my father had always been able to laugh about. I did secretly suspect that it hurt his feelings somewhat that the kids in the neighbourhood thought him some kind of monster that would eat them alive if they came over to play while he was at home. In their defence, though, whenever my Dad got angry, he had the lung capacity of a Roman general readying his troops for the oncoming battle. That man could yell like nobody's business.

I stared bleakly at the parchment in front of me. I'd been thinking about any potential, female Beaters to join our team and so far hadn't gotten that many girls on my list. There was Anita Broker. She was a third year and would be able to play for the first time this year since younger students generally weren't allowed to practice Quidditch. And rightly so. Quidditch could be a dangerous and exhausting game. Especially under James' command. He'd been helping Roger last year with our training schedules and that year had been the roughest one so far. The best one we'd played, sure, so James' tactics were, in fact, working and I'd gotten more muscled and lean since he shared his expertise. But still.

Anita was a blond-haired, green-eyed, soon-to-be beauty that I'd seen playing Quidditch over the summer. Her house was adjacent to Marlene's, and Leeney's bedroom terrace had a perfect view of their garden. Anita, apparently, had a lot of male cousins - one of which broke Marlene's heart over the summer and is never to be mentioned again - that liked to play Quidditch. Anita had been good enough to stand her ground against her older cousins - the youngest was eighteen and the oldest somewhere in his mid-twenties - so I was definitely planning on asking her to join us.

Ciara Darrow was the other girl on my short list of two. Ciara was more ordinary looking and built a little lighter than Anita. She was a fifth year, and thus a year below me. I'd gotten to know her through Bass, who generally liked and knew everyone. We hadn't talked as much, but we were on a first name basis, I supposed. At least we nodded in the hallway to one another, and I had a feeling she was the kind of girl I might one day be friends with. Anyhow, it was Bass that had given me the idea that she might have some Beater potential. He was always going on and on about how she had a tactical mind and was a lot stronger than she looked.

Not that I think she looked weak, but I did wonder if she'd be able to hit Bludgers for hours on end. Bass did say that she was a decent flyer since they flew to Ireland last year to spend the weekend in Kilkenny. I had been a little jealous, but they'd never really dated. Bass always seemed very adamant to let me know that he wasn't dating anyone. I couldn't imagine trying to compete with someone like Ciara.

Not that I was competing.

Or thinking about competing for Bass' love. I wasn't a character in Lily's romance novels.

Anita and Ciara. Ciara and Anita, the two girls on which my hopes rested. I was eager to prove myself to James since he hadn't hung any list up yet. Something he couldn't do as long as our team wasn't complete. I was pretty sure that I was going to make the cut, but if this could prove my worth not only as a team member but as a keen Quidditch mind, I had to grasp the opportunity with both hands.

I looked up when the portrait swung open and jumped up when I saw that it was Anita that entered. It was a Friday night and curfew was still two hours away. I hadn't expected to see her this soon. In my hurry and enthusiasm, I knocked over my chair trying to get to her. I quickly righted the wooden thing and hurried towards Anita. Most of Gryffindor House just went on with their business. My knocking over furniture had become such a daily occurrence that most of them didn't even bother looking up anymore.

It just made me feel like Gryffindor was my family all the more. These people were my home, and they'd always be there for me. It truly did give me a lovely, warm feeling.

Drat it all. Maybe I really was a character from one of Lily's novels.

Just typical that I'd be the single and clumsy one.

"Anita," I said, disturbing her conversation with three friends. All of them girls. I do hope she would be able to handle boys and their tantrums. "Can I talk to you for a moment?"

Anita nodded to her friends, who scurried off to the other side of the common room, where they stood and stared at us curiously.

"I hope I'm not being too straight forward or weird, but do you remember me from this summer?" I asked her, stumbling over my words in my haste to get them out.

To my great amazement, Anita seemed as flustered and out of sorts as I did.

"Yeah, of course, you were at Marlene's house, yeah? We just moved there last winter, but honestly I would know you even if we hadn't met over the summer." I blinked at her. Whatever could she mean? I didn't know that many people here at Hogwarts, even though most people knew _of_ me. That did make me sound a little conceited, didn't it? But then again it's just my clumsy reputation that they knew of. Nothing to be proud of, really.

"You saved the Quaffle two years ago with that spectacular dive after MacCullen threw it to Rosswood who was just mere inches from the ground. It was in-bloody-sane."

I stared at her and probably looked like a fish on dry land for a few ticks while my mouth opened and closed on its own accord. I was astounded that I'd made that kind of impression on a first year during my first game. Gryffindor-Slytherin games were usually quite spectacular because of the animosity between our two Houses, but I was immensely flattered.

I couldn't wait to tell Marlene I had a fan. "Erhm. Thank you."

"You're like nobility," Anita gushed.

Never mind, she was obviously off her rocker. "I'm not," I laughed. "I doubt anyone else remembers that dive."

"You could have died," Anita said quickly. "Of course they do."

I wouldn't have died. Broken my neck and most of my spine if I'd hit the ground, probably, but I'm sure young Pomfrey would have been able to fix me right up. Get back on track, Larnes. Your eighteen hours are slowly ticking away. "I - erh - well, thank you. I was wondering if you ever thought of joining the team?"

"Me?" Anita even pointed at herself, and I frowned. She was going to fit in greatly with the lads. Which was such a mean thing to think, I realised.

"Yeah, have you tried out yet?"

Anita shook her head wordlessly.

"You're in your third year now, yes?" She nodded. "Well, then why don't you give it a shot? I saw you playing over the summer, and I think you could be a fine Beater. We hold another try-out tomorrow, and I hope to see you there."

"You think I have a chance?"

I really did, I was just wondering if she'd click personality-wise with the rest of the team since she was so much younger than most of us, but that wasn't my concern. James wanted to be captain, so James got to keep the peace.

"I do. The try-out sheet is on the clipboard over there. Do me a huge favour and sign yourself up. We could definitely use more girls on the team. If you're worrying about using a broom, we have plenty of them that you can borrow until you get your own." I smiled as big as I could and wondered if someone's mouth had torn from smiling too widely before. It certainly felt like my face was being stretched to neigh on impossible lengths. I really needed her to come tomorrow night.

"I will," Anita nodded enthusiastically. "Thanks for the tip, Juliet!"

"No problem. I'll be there to cheer you on," I promised.

Anita turned to the announcement board and walked straight to the clipboard James had put up there. I couldn't help but notice the little spring she now had in her step and smiled. Her enthusiasm was rubbing off on me, and I wondered if she wouldn't fit in after all.

One down, one to go.

* * *

The next day I still hadn't been able to spot Ciara, and I was starting to worry. What if I couldn't find her? How had she escaped my notice? I'd stayed up most of the night in the common room, hoping to catch her on her way in. But by eleven she still hadn't shown up, and I'd only gone up myself when Marlene came and fetched me.

"You look like you had a nice stumble in the hay," Marlene commented. "But since Bass isn't allowed in our dorm and you've been snoring all night, I know that's not the case."

"I'm not the one who snores," I immediately replied. "That'd be you."

"Details." Marlene waved it off.

"Maybe," I said as I grumpily grabbed a bit of toast and some marmalade, "you snore so loudly that you dreamt I was the one snoring."

"Even I don't snore that loudly," Marlene said, rolling her eyes.

"Lily once had a nightmare because she thought the plane she was in was about to crash because its engine made a god awful sound," I recalled. The poor girl had been out of sorts all day and had given Marlene the stink eye for the rest of the week. She now slept with earplugs that I was somewhat envious of. I would feel awful though if Marlene ever caught me with a pair of plugs in my ears because I knew how much it'd secretly bothered her that she was a loud sleeper.

It had once been the reason Frances, a Ravenclaw, had broken up with her two years ago. They'd snuck off to the astronomy tower and fell asleep there. The twat had said that he couldn't imagine ever being with someone who sounded like a broken canon every night. The only douche canon I saw was him and that big waffle of his.

Who says that to their girlfriend? Honestly.

Marlene might have had more boyfriends than my grand total of zero conquests but her past relationships had never ended well. So maybe I had the better deal out of the two of us.

"Lily is a wuss," Marlene said meanly, before staring at my toast. "Is that all you're having?"

"Yes," I simply replied and Marlene nodded as if that explained why the Earth was round.

We ate in a somewhat companionable silence until I remembered my duty as a Chaser. I was now not only burdened witch chasing the Quaffle but also with hunting down new teammates.

And I only had until eight tonight to find new players for the team. I was probably taking this way too seriously, just as Marlene had implied before we sat down for breakfast, but I really wanted - no, needed - for us to win the Cup this year. I only had two more chances to win it before I graduated, and I'd be damned if I let anyone else have that cup - no matter how much they may or may not deserve to have it in their common room.

This year's Cup was ours.

But not if we didn't find a new Beater tonight. The next game was only a good week away, and Hufflepuff - HUFFLEPUFF! - was going to beat our ass if we didn't put our broomsticks in the air soon.

"Will you please stop stressing out so much? Bass, tell her to stop stressing?"

I looked up at the name of my Lord and Saviour and flushed red.

"What is she stressing about?" Bass asked us with a grin as he sat down next to me and planted a kiss on my flaming red cheek. I wondered if he could feel my heart pounding through my skin as his lips landed on it.

Stop being such a weirdo, Juliet Larnes. He's not a vampire, nor does he have a blood fetish.

I hoped.

"James asked me to help find new candidates for the try-out tonight," I said as I put down the toast I had barely eaten from. Marlene frowned at it, but I ignored her.

"Well," Bass said calmly as if he wasn't about to make my day a billion times better by what he was about to say next, "he couldn't have asked a better person if you ask me. If anyone can find us a new, competent Beater it's you, Jules."

I beamed at the compliment, and my heart missed a beat. Merlin, I loved that boy.

"Just get a room," Marlene groaned before she drowned her sorrows with orange juice.

Bass waggled his eyebrows suggestively at me as he bit down into the croissant. It was supposed to be comical, but I couldn't help but find him adorable. "I'm game if you are," he said after he swallowed his food.

"I'm always game when it comes to you," I said without thinking and then froze.

Marlene, a true friend, spew her orange juice all over me, successfully diverting the attention from what I'd said for a few heartbeats. She howled with laughter, and I threw my remaining toast with marmalade at her face. It got stuck in her hair, and she shrieked.

"Juliet Larnes!"

"Marlene McKinnon!" I mocked.

"You're the worst friend in the world. I have jam in my hair, the horrible kind only you manage to eat in the morning!"

"I'm wearing orange juice for the day so I'd say we're even," I retorted with narrowed eyes.

We stared at each other before we turned to look at Bass who'd been silently laughing all the while.

"You got something to say?" Marlene asked him, crossing her arms defiantly as I wondered if a food fight would be worth getting detention for.

"This is easily fixed, ladies," Bass said, grabbing his wand. With a swift wave he cleared the jam out of Marlene's hair and cleaned my uniform. He leaned closer to me, and his lips tickled my ear as he whispered; "Maybe later I'll get to fix something for the two of us too."

I turned my head and looked at him, the grin on my face slowly dimming as his eyes stared into mine. He then winked and took another bite from his croissant as if nothing were amiss.

Maybe I'd found another game, besides Exploding Snap, that I was never going to win.

* * *

"Ciara?" I asked to her retreating back when I finally crossed paths with her. Ciara had been about to leave the library when I caught her on the way in.

She turned around and frowned at me for a second as if she was trying to remember my name. I could tell the exact second she realised what it was again. "Juliet! Hey, how are you?"

"Good, thanks," I replied quickly. I didn't have much time to spare before the next class started. "Listen, I'm sorry to be so abrupt about it, but how would you feel about trying out tonight?"

Ciara grinned. "I had been thinking about it..."

"And?" I asked her slowly, grinning like a madwoman. Nothing could make me more sociable than Quidditch. "I could use another girl on the team, just to keep my sanity, honestly. And Bass has already turned me into such a fan of yours."

Ciara laughed at that. "Bass is an idiot, but I'll be there. I can't promise I'll make the cut though, but I will definitely try."

"You'll blow everyone away," I assured her, relieved that I wouldn't turn up empty-handed later tonight. "Don't forget to sign up on the clipboard in the common room." James was very adamant he had everyone's names before try-outs started. He'd even turned down a fourth year at the beginning of September because the poor kid had forgotten to sign his name on the stupid parchment.

"Thanks," Ciara grinned. "I'm sorry, but I've got to run. I'll see you tonight then?"

I nodded. "If you hear anyone screaming your name in the bleachers, that's me cheering you on!"

Ciara laughed again and turned around. I watched her walk away from me and rolled my eyes. Maybe if I rolled them hard enough, I'd find a brain back there because I wasn't too sure I actually had one. _If you hear anyone screaming in the bleachers..._

Good thing Marlene wasn't here because she would never let me live this down.

That reminded me why I'd come to the library in the first place. I looked at the book Marlene had forgotten to return today and hurried inside. Marlene had been banished from the library once before because she'd refused to return a book. "It's my favourite. I can't be parted from my baby, Jules! You can't make me."

Madame Vans had only just forgiven her, and Leeney was desperately trying not to get banished again. If only so Lily would stop hexing her for dog earing her books.

Sometimes I wondered if my life wasn't part of some Muggle tv show.

I was so very, very late as I skipped steps and twisted my ankle. I hobbled further down the corridors until I reached the great doors. I took a moment to rub my hurt ankle before I was on my way again. Try-outs had started twenty minutes ago, and James was going to kill me. I speed walked as fast as my ankle let me.

Why had I stayed up so late last night? Why hadn't Marlene kept a stricter eye on me? She really shouldn't have let me fall asleep in that armchair.

When I finally made it to the Pitch, Anita was already in the air with Sirius.

"Glad you could make it," James said and he, to my shock, didn't sound at all angry with me for being so unfashionably late. "You did well, Larnes."

I followed to where he pointed. Anita hit a bludger that even seemed to impress Sirius, which was a hard thing for a girl to do in any case.

"I think we found our Beater," James said grinning happily and slapping me on the back. "You're awesome, Larnes."

Say that again for the back of the choir, please.

I looked to my right and saw Ciara biting her lip at James' words. "Has Ciara tried out yet?"

"No, but we don't need any more team members," James reminded me.

I raised an eyebrow at that arrogance. "So you don't think she could be an asset to us even though you haven't even seen her fly?"

James turned to study me for a second before he nodded. He blew his whistle. "Ciara Dowes, you're up."

I put my thumbs in the air for support as she kicked off into the air. She hit a few decent bludgers, but it was her manoeuvre to dodge one of Sirius' that had me impressed.

"James," I said, "can I borrow your broom?"

"What? Why?"

"Don't you see?" I asked as Ciara deftly out-manoeuvred Sirius' bludgers before hitting them back.

"Oh," was all he said as he gave me his broom. His eyes never left Ciara's form.

I kicked off and admired the speed of James' new broom, the Nimbus 600. It could probably fly circles around my Nimbus 500. Bloody hell being rich certainly paid off.

I flew up to Sirius, who'd just flew into the bludger's path only to hit it towards Ciara again. "Sirius," I said and caught his eye.

He frowned. "What the bloody hell-"

I put my hand up to stop him. "Do you mind?"

He raised an eyebrow, completely unimpressed by my brazen attitude that only seemed to come out around him. "I do actually, fly your ass out of here."

I sighed and turned when I heard James shout my name. I caught the quaffle that he'd tossed my way easily. "Just keep sending those balls of yours our way."

He smirked. "Wouldn't you like that, Larnes."

I stared at him, wondering for a few seconds what he meant before I paled. "Merlin, no," I said and meant it. I didn't want Sirius' balls anywhere near me.

His face fell for a second, shocked that someone didn't want a body part of his in their personal space, before he shook his head. "Just get on with it then."

I flew to Ciara and yelled at her to drop the bat which she did, and threw the quaffle her way.

"Let's see how you do as a Chaser," I grinned and together we dodged Sirius' bludgers as I tried to take the quaffle away from her. I succeeded six times out of ten which really did say something since I was a boss on a broomstick.

When we landed James was grinning from ear to ear. Only three Gryffindors had shown up at the third try-out, but James didn't seem to care about the "disloyalty" of our housemates anymore. (Something he'd complained about for a week with the last try-out.)

He hugged me and Sirius when the lad landed next to us as well. "This, my dears, is going to be our year," he prophesized.

Sirius grinned, and the grin didn't waver when his eyes caught mine.


	7. Roses and Thorns

Helly my dearies,

It's my day off today and I've decided to bring you DRAMA. Lots of it. These are always the best chapters to write. I just love dramatic scenes. The way it gets your blood pumping when you read or write it... Amazing.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapters as much as I did!

Love,

Kelly

* * *

 **7\. Roses and Thorns**

Marlene had ditched me for breakfast. You'd think after six years of friendship a girl would get used to being dumped for food, but it never gets old. I woke up on a Saturday morning, a week after our first practice back after the summer holiday, to find Marlene's bed empty. No note, nothing.

Sariah's magical alarm clock (the numbers floating above her night stand in a soft blue hue) told me that breakfast had started an hour ago and that probably explained the fact that I woke up alone. Even Suzanna had gotten up before me, which was saying something because that girl was as lazy as lazy got in the morning.

I didn't really mind waking up without those two witches though. They'd have found some way to ruin my morning, and Saturdays were for happiness and hot chocolate.

I quickly washed and dressed myself before I made my way down to the Great Hall, hoping to find some remnants of breakfast left.

I didn't make it all the way down before I got held up on the first floor. I'd just realised I had to pee right _that_ second and figured that it was just typical that I'd have to go to Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. Last time I'd been there she'd thrown toilet water in my face.

I sighed and considered my options. I could go to the bathroom adorning the Great Hall, but I never really liked going to that one. It was a little dirty right after breakfast and had this Merlin awful smell since the House Elves hadn't had time to clean them yet.

So… Dirty toilet or listening to Myrtle's moaning?

I chose Myrtle. I took a sharp left and raced across the corridor. I walked into the girl's bathroom, carefully looking left and right before deciding that the coast was clear. I emptied my bladder and imagined a sigh of relief coming from within my body. I flushed the toilet with a content smile. Nobody ever came into this bathroom anymore since they'd put it out of order after Myrtle died a few decades or centuries ago. Well, out of order. Everything worked fine if you knew the proper spells, but students just didn't like coming in here, I supposed.

Myrtle liked to complain about being dead a lot, but I'd never heard her describe her death. Not that I was that interested in hearing the tale. She'd probably haunt me till my own dying day, thinking she'd found a new friend in me. And wow, as far as mean thoughts went this one was about the worst I'd gotten.

"I wouldn't go out if I were you," Myrtle's annoying high-pitched voice declared when I left the stall.

I looked up to find her floating above the second sink to my right. She appeared to be sitting on it and I raised an eyebrow. "Oh?" I said as I casually moved to stand beside her to wash my hands. I'd ticked my wand on the tap to ensure water would come out of it.

"It's a lover's spat," Myrtle giggled delightedly. "She's crying her eyes out. Then again I would too with that hideous hair."

"That's not very nice," I said absentmindedly as I wondered where I was going to dry my hands off on. Bloody Merlin. With a frown I wiped them dry on my skirt. Gross.

"Neither is his nose," she cackled.

With a last disdainful look at the ghost, I left the girl's bathroom and halted in my tracks when I heard raised voices. A lover's spat. Right.

I hid in the doorway, wondering if it'd be all right for me to walk out of there and pretend that I hadn't heard anything.

"You know I'd recognise you in any crowd! Can't we just put this past us?"

I knew that voice, and Myrtle did talk of an ugly nose. Blame my curiosity, blame Marlene's nosy influence, but I took a peek.

Lily Evans was standing in front of Severus Snape looking furious as hell. I briefly imagined her hair floating in the air like Medusa's, she looked that ready to freeze him or feed him to snakes. I couldn't see her face, but it didn't look to me like she was crying her "eyes out". Severus Snape—or Snivellus as some Gryffindors liked to call them thanks to James and his crew—stood there looking contrite with his hands in his pants and sorrowful eyes.

I'd heard of the fight they'd had, and I understood Lily completely. If my best friend ever called me a Mudblood, I'd serve Leeney as a new breakfast delicacy to the creatures in the Forbidden Forest.

"What does that have to do with anything, Severus?" Lily sounded incredulous and at her wit's end.

"You don't understand what I'm saying. Lily, I lo-"

"I do _not_ want to hear this. You don't get to say that to me," Lily said, raising her voice angrily. "You don't know what love is. You were my best friend, Severus. I loved you, and I would have never used your heritage or your life style against you. Did I stop being your friend when you started hanging out with those buffoons?"

"They're just talking big. They don't really mean to harm your kind."

Oh boy.

"My. _Kind_?" Lily spat through gritted teeth. "My kind would never hang out with yours. Any sort of friendship we ever had—if it was ever friendship at all—you destroyed. Go to your new friends, _Snape_."

Snape with his greasy hair and even greasier paws, or so I imagined, made a move to grab her arm when Lily turned away. No way in hell. I took a step from the bathroom door and walked towards them in a brisk pace.

"Good morning, Lily," I said way cheerier than I felt as I stared Snape down. "Is he bothering you?"

Lily stared at Snape. I couldn't help but notice that she made no excuses for him as she would have done two years ago. "I don't know. Are you bothering me?"

Snape pursed his lips and glared at me. "No." His answer was colder than any tone I'd ever heard him use on Lily before.

Lily hooked her arm in mine, and we left him there, looking like an angry cockroach in need of a shower. She was shaking like a leaf as we walked away, but you would never have been able to tell by the way she held her chin high. Lily Evans was a queen in the truest sense of the word. She didn't have any money or kingdoms, but she was nobility in every fibre of her being. Severus Snape as a fool to have treated her like she was somehow lesser than him. Lily was twice the witch I could ever be, both in grades and grace.

"Are you okay?" I asked when we descended the last stairs to get to the ground level of the castle.

"I will be," Lily confessed. "Thanks for finding me when you did. I don't know what I would have done if he'd touched me."

I hesitated. I hated to defend Snape in any way, but I honestly didn't think he would have harmed her. I told Lily so.

"I know," she scoffed. "He isn't brave enough to raise a hand to me, because I'd have ripped it clean off." Blood thirsty thing, wasn't she? "But I don't want him to touch me at all. He lost the right to be my friend years ago, and he's never getting back into my life."

I nodded. I couldn't imagine Marlene ever hurting me so badly, wounding me so deeply that I couldn't even stomach the thought of touching her. Of talking to her.

I hesitated just a moment but figured that Marlene would probably have finished breakfast by now and had run off somewhere. "Have you eaten yet?"

Lily sighed. "Yes, but I feel like I could use another one of those scones."

Another emotional eater. I squeezed her hand because I was the exact same way. I didn't eat much in comparison to Marlene, but when I was emotional, I could and would eat the food intended for an entire army.

"Join me for breakfast then?"

Lily bumped her hip into mine, almost causing me to slip and fall. She kept me upright as if she'd anticipated my clumsiness. It had been a while since I'd stumbled, as if the weight of what had happened last June had been wearing me down. As if it had made me too heavy for me to even stumble or lift my foot high enough to hit my toe against a chair. "I'd love to. Dorcas is busy hunting down her new crush, anyway."

I raised an eyebrow.

Lily laughed. "It sounds a little aggressive, doesn't it?"

I hesitated.

"It's okay. Dorcas is very serious about who she pursues. It's a little scary sometimes."

I grinned. "As scary as a ravenous Marlene looking at a feast?"

We both giggled a little at the our friends' expense as we walked into the Great Hall. My eyes automatically scoured the room for Marlene but couldn't find her anywhere. In the end, Lily and I sat down and had a lovely breakfast together.

Maybe befriending Lily wasn't so bad at all.

* * *

I hung out with Lily the whole day, neither one of us being able to find our other—and arguably, better—halves. We'd started studying and as it turns out Lily was a bad ass at DADA. She tutored me for an hour or two on the most difficult spells that I hadn't managed to master in class. Then I helped her out with her essay for Herbology.

After lunch—still no Marlene or Dorcas—we took a stroll around the grounds and visited Hagrid. I'd never really visited the giant before, but Lily seemed to be a regular. We complained about James for a few minutes—each for different reasons—until Hagrid dragged us outside to show us his new pets; a group of fire crabs. They sure were pretty with their jewelled shell and six legs, but I mostly adored them because when Hagrid moved to pick one up, it burned half his beard off.

Ugly things, beards. I wasn't sorry to see it go when Lily shaved Hagrid clean with a simple spell. He looked far younger now, less wild and rugged.

Hagrid made me promise to come back some other time with or without Lily and having had a good time I promised him that I would. Marlene would adore him, I knew.

When Marlene didn't show up for dinner, I knew something must be wrong. I had noticed her acting weird after she confessed that she'd done something "stupid" a week or so ago, but she hadn't brought it up again and I hadn't asked. I figured she'd tell me when she was ready, but she hadn't yet.

We were joined by Dorcas that evening as we played a game or two of wizarding chess in the Hufflepuff common room. It was snug in the dungeons, but I definitely preferred ours to theirs.

Lily and I entered the cosy, warm embrace of reds and golds that was our common room well before the curfew that night and found Marlene sitting on the couch with a sour look on her face.

"There you are," Leeney said, sounding like my mother after I'd broken something of hers again. "Had fun today?"

Circe save us.

Lily, catching up on Marlene's mood, gave me a nod and went to sit on the other side of the room in a comfortable looking armchair by the window.

"Hey Marlene," I started with a tentative smile, noting the red eyes. She'd been crying, and I hadn't been there for her. I felt awful. "Where have you been today?"

"Looking for you," she muttered and looked away from me to stare into the fire.

I bit my lip and slowly moved closer and took a seat next to her. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"I did," Marlene bit out, "but no thank you."

"Don't be like that," I started, shuffling around a little as I didn't know what to do with myself or how to behave. I was definitely in the wrong this time.

"Be like what? Hurt that my best friend knew how bad I was feeling lately and apparently didn't care?" Marlene crossed her arms, and I saw her start to cry again.

Merlin, Morgana and Circe combined don't do this to me. I could feel myself start to tear up already as I was bound to do when I saw Marlene fall apart. It was like we were two halves of a whole. When the other one started crying, the other would soon follow.

"I know you've had a bad couple of weeks, but you didn't tell me what happened so-"

"Because you didn't care enough to ask!"

I had been trying to give her space. I told her so and Marlene threw her hands up in the air.

"You were trying to find an easy way to avoid my problems, while I was there for you over the summer." She lowered her voice. "When Bass shattered you into a million pieces last June, I picked you up and put you back together again. When you felt worthless and utterly incapable of ever feeling _right_ again, I showed you your worth. When you messed up the Cup," she raised her voice to a shout, "and the whole school hated you for letting the Slytherins take the win, I picked up the pieces _again_."

I sat there, frozen as if I was caught unawares by a full body-bind curse, wondering how our friendship had ended up here.

 _Because you're a selfish tart, Jules. That's how._

"I've been struggling with the same thing for months but you were too stuck in your own problems to notice." Marlene wiped her cheeks dry and held up her hand when I opened my mouth to speak. "It's okay. You've had a lot on your plate, and I love you. But right now you've failed me a little, and I need a break."

"A break?" I croaked, feeling the tears sting my eyes. It hurt me to see her like this, and I hated myself for not doing anything about it before. I had been too caught up in my own problems, Marlene was right.

"Yeah. From our friendship." She sounded harder now as if the tears weren't drowning her vocal chords anymore. "I see you've already found a replacement." She made a vague gesture towards Lily. "My best wishes to you both."

I choked on a laugh. Everyone knew that we came as a team. Marlene and Juliet. Jules and Leeney. We were too weird for anyone else, and in all the years that we'd been here we hadn't really bothered to befriend any of the other students. We were Mariet, and she was ready to abandon ship. "Marlene, that's ridiculous."

She turned around and walked to the stairs.

"Aren't you being a little overdramatic?" I asked her as I followed her around the couch, getting a little angry myself now. I had a lot of my plate, right? First Bass, then quidditch, then Bass again. It might be the same sort of drama, but my heart had been through the wringer the last few months and I was still regrouping my troops so to speak. I had been there for Marlene through every heartbreak of hers—of which there had been plenty—and now that when I was a little out of it, she was ready to dump me like yesterday's trash?

No way.

She turned around in a swift movement, and I tumbled backwards but thankfully remained upright. "I'm being overdramatic? Throwing the Quaffle at Bass and breaking his nose, I could understand, but then not managing to catch the Quaffle anytime James or Ciara threw it at you afterwards _that_ 's being overdramatic. Crying and flying into Sirius because you couldn't focus _that_ 's being overdramatic. Falling off your broom and nearly dying _THAT IS MERLIN DAMNED BEING OVERDRAMATIC FOR MORGANA'S SAKE_. That douche canoe is gone. Off this school. Let it go."

With that said, Marlene turned around and practically ran up the steps.

I stood there and turned around, ready to flee the common room and its prying eyes, only to see James and Sirius frozen in the portrait hole.

That's just great.

I couldn't go upstairs, I couldn't go out. I stood there, crying like an idiot and shivering with rage, until Lily came and gently guided me towards the window.

"Tell me what happened between you and Bass," Lily said softly as she rubbed my arms, somehow sensing that I needed Bass out of my system before I could go upstairs and face Leeney. "Tell me everything."

I looked at her and started telling her about how he used to kiss me in the corridors as a way of greeting. I told her how he'd inspire me to do better, but when I came to the part where we actually started dating, where he'd asked me out to Hogsmeade, I choked.

It was ridiculous how that lad still affected me. It wasn't like he'd forced me to do anything against my will. It wasn't as if it didn't take two to tango.

Lily told me it was okay, and that I didn't need to tell her but that she'd always be there when I was ready. She challenged me to another game of wizarding chess. It was Lily who pointed out that I needed to look around the common room shortly after midnight. Only a few Gryffindors were still up. Ciara and Stella (her best friend), James, Sirius, Remus and Peter. They cast occasional glances my way, and I knew that the boys had fully forgiven me now. Even Sirius.

My team sat by the fire, silently showing me their support and I was floored. Lily patted my hand when my eyes filled with tears again.

Afterwards I let Lily guide me upstairs. I didn't tell her that it annoyed me a little that she was treating me like an elderly lady, incapable of walking by herself, but I was secretly grateful. At least I wouldn't be tripping on air tonight. I took a step towards Marlene's bed but she'd shut the curtains. She couldn't have sent a clearer message if she'd tried.

I went to my own bed and said my goodnights to Lily. I halted when I saw a single, white rose on my pillow.

"What's that?" Lily asked me from her bed across mine.

I stared at it as if it was going to bite my head off. A clear possibility if Leeney had left it there. "A rose."

"Does it have note?" Lily asked, sounding giddy with the idea of blooming romance.

I was kind of done with romances and blooming. "No," I said and chucked it away, not caring who it was from or how it had gotten there.

Lily frowned, but didn't say anything besides a soft "goodnight".

I lay awake for a good few hours afterwards, wondering how I was going to fix the mess I'd made. I'd been a horrible friend to Marlene, and she was right to tell me off. It wasn't right however to call for a 'break'. If I'd had to call for a pause in our friendship everything Marlene had bitched out, we'd still be on a break from third year after her bitch fest over Tom Paulissen.

I didn't agree with how publicly she'd handled everything. She could just as easily have talked to me about this in private. The sadness of our fight was slowly leaving my mind, and I could feel my heart thumping in an angry drum. I probably should have gone looking for her straight after dinner instead of going to the Hufflepuff common room with Lily and Dorcas, but she could just as easily have found me. I was at lunch. I was at dinner. It wasn't like I was making myself hard to find.

Marlene's an idiot, was my last thought before I fell asleep. I dreamt of white rose bushes with thorns like knives. They were chasing me, a lovely woman's voice accompanied them out of thin air and sang a hauntingly beautiful song. I started running and running, and James' voice shouted overhead that my form was pathetic. I was being hunted by pretty roses and whenever I slowed down their thorns made me bleed.


End file.
